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Social responsibility in influencer marketing

What social responsibility do influencers and brands have in commercial partnerships? Is it the influencer’s responsibility to know what they are promoting, the consumer’s responsibility to be wary to the advertisements – or the brand’s responsibility to provide products and services that keep what they promise?

Influencers are commercially, a gold mine; big influence, aspiration and trust within their target group. Clever content creators, with everything from a couple of thousand to several million followers consuming their content.

We have gathered some helpful advice for how both influencers and brands can be more conscious of their social responsibility when running influencer campaigns.

Defining your moral and ethics as an influencer

With power comes responsibility and as an influencer you have to follow the law of marketing. You also have the responsibility to make sure you have a sense of moral and ethics when introducing a brand to your audience. How does the content you post influence the people on the other side of the screen? Are you aware of the values and moral actions of your commercial partner? Are these a good fit with your own values and what you want to communicate to the world? Can you support the brand and what they stand for 100%?

It is up to each influencer to decide how to build their own brand. What content to post, what to advertise for and how to produce commercial content. Always remember that it is allowed to have your own opinions, view on moral and ethics and political opinions. As an influencer marketing agency, we strongly recommend all our influencers to take time and define their own moral and ethics, and to consider each new commercial partner up against these.

Brands working with influencers – how to make sure the advertisement is socially responsible?

Using influencers to promote brands are an effective way to establish a strong relationship with the target group. The influencers need to know who and what they are promoting – but what about the brands behind the advertisement?

Some general advice for a socially responsible campaign:

> Make sure the campaign and the influencers you collaborate with are in line with your company’s values and CSR plan.

> Take a look at the target group you want to reach through the influencers. How can your products affect these people? Is it a possibility that they could be negatively influenced by seeing your campaign? Consider what you can do to avoid this.

> Ensure the influencer campaign has a clear message and that you have communicated your vision and the purpose of the campaign clearly to all involved parties.

> Think about how the campaign and its content will influence your brand. Are you, our your competitors, experiencing strong criticism in the public? An influencer campaign can be the perfect way to explain more about what you actually do, or to show your target group that you care about social responsibility.

Influencers, brands and agencies behind the campaigns each have a responsibility to make sure the end result of the partnership are something they can be proud of. As an influencer marketing agency, we always try our best to guide both our customers and our influencers within this subject. Together, we are influencing a lot of people – with that comes great responsibility for all parties.

Have any questions about social responsibility in influencer marketing? Get in touch with us to have a talk!